Emma Gonzalez Biography
Emma Gonzalez is an American activist and advocate for gun control who as a high school senior she survived the February 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland Florida.
Emma Gonzalez Age
She was born on November 11, 1999, in Florida, U.S. He is 19 years old as of 2018.
Emma Gonzalez Parents | College
She was raised in Parkland, Florida. Her mother, Jose Gonzalez, is a Math tutor and her father, Beth Gonzalez, is a cybersecurity attorney who migrated from Cuba to New York City in 1968. She has two siblings.
She attended Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and graduated in the spring of 2018. She was the president of its gay-straight alliance. Besides that, she was the tracking leader on the ‘Project Aquila’. This project aimed at sending a weather balloon ‘to the edge of space’.
On February 14, 2018, a gunman opened fire in her school and killed 17 people and injured several more. She hid along with her friends in the auditorium when the fire alarm went off and she was held thee for about two hours until the police finally began letting students out.
She is bisexual.
Emma Gonzalez Activism
On 17 February 2018, Emma Gonzalez delivered an 11minute speech at a gun-control rally in front of the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Her speech which featured a call and response: ‘We call B.S’ in response to gun laws, went viral in no time. On 20 February 2018, she along with other survivors spoke with Florida state legislators in Tallahassee on how gun control was the need of the hour.
Gonzalez and her fellow students watched the legislature vote down debate on an existing gun control bill. On 21 February 2018, at an internationally televised town hall hosted by CNN, Gonzalez and her fellow students criticized the NRA as well as politicians accepting money from them, for being complicit in the shootings. At the town hall, Gonzalez pressed NRA representative Dana Loesch to answer her questions when the latter was being evasive.
On March 24, 2018, along with other students, she organized and participated in the nationwide ‘March for Our Lives’ protest where she spoke for six minutes and also paid tribute to the victims by repeating their names and the things that they would never do or cherish. Later during an interview, she called for people to ’empathize rather than feel apathy’ and vote for change.
Emma Gonzalez We Call Bs
During an interview with Ellen DeGeneres on February 23, 2018, she stated that she came up with the ‘We call B.S’ slogan as she felt that her message would best resonate through repetition.
Emma Gonzalez Controversies
She has been attacked together with her fellow students constantly by the political right wing of American politics and press for their activism. She was even called a ‘skinhead lesbian’ by Leslie Gibson, a Republican candidate running unopposed for the Maine legislature and lifetime NRA member. She has been falsely accused by conspiracy theorists and her fellow protestors of being ‘crisis actors’. She was also criticized by Republican congressman Steve King for wearing a Cuban flag patch on her jacket during her speech.
Emma Gonzalez Speech | March For Our Lives
This is a piece of the speech that she gave on March 24, 2018.
Six minutes, and about 20 seconds. In a little over six minutes, 17 of our friends were taken from us, 15 more were injured, and everyone, absolutely everyone in the Douglas community was forever altered. Everyone who was there understands. Everyone who has been touched by the cold grip of gun violence understands. For us, long, tearful, chaotic hours in the scorching afternoon sun were spent not knowing.
No one understood the extent of what had happened. No one could believe that there were bodies in that building waiting to be identified for over a day. No one knew that the people who were missing had stopped breathing long before any of us had even known that a code red had been called. No one could comprehend the devastating aftermath, or how far this would reach, or where this would go.
Emma Gonzalez Quotes
“At the end of the day, we don’t want people to have their guns taken away. We just want people to be more responsible. We want civilians to have to go through more rolls of red tape to get what they want, because if any of that tape can stop those who shouldn’t own a gun from owning a gun, then our government will have done something right.”
“Teachers do not need to be armed with guns to protect their classes, they need to be armed with a solid education in order to teach their classes. That’s the only thing that needs to be in their job description.”
“We want increased mental health care for all those who need it—including the angry, frustrated men who almost always commit these crimes. Mental illness and gun violence are not directly correlated, but when the two go hand in hand, Americans—often children—lose their lives.”
Emma Gonzalez Net Worth
She has an estimated net worth of about $10, 000.
Emma Gonzalez 2019 | Now | With Hair
Emma Gonzalez Gun Control
She is an advocate for gun control. This made her a high profile person in media appearances and he helped organize the March for Our Lives.
